SciFi Art Now is a book collecting some of the best in contemporary science fiction art by a wide range of creators. The book, edited by John Freeman, includes an introduction by the legendary Chris Foss and is on sale now in all good bookshops.

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Max Bertolini is a self taught cartoonist, working in the comics business and illustration field. He's the artist on the Italian comic Nathan Never, a 94 page, black and white comic, which means he spends half his day working in black and white and the rest painting in full colour, working on comic covers, Fantasy and Sci-fi books. "My mind is split in two, I would say," he feels.

Sci-Fi Art Now: What tools do you mainly use to create your art?

Max Bertolini: I begin drawing the characters with a pencil that helps me to create the shades as well. Than I scan them into Photoshop and put on the colours.

Sci-Fi Art Now: Why?

Max: I began with oils years ago but finally turned to the PC because it's faster and you can fix colours quickly. Now I have a lot of fun drawing with Photoshop, much more than traditional ways.

New Beginning
by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: What inspired you to become an artist?

Max: When I was a child I wanted to bring to life the characters that kept running into my mind. I wasn't satisfied until I managed to draw them exactly. When I grew up I started enjoing all kind of art, not only comics and fantasy novels, and that helped me so much expanding my artistic views.

Thor by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: What was the most useful piece of advice you were given when you began learning your craft?

Max: I was given a lot of advice. The one I remember best was a talk with Neal Adams, that explained me the importance of photo reference among many other hints I had from him.

Iron Man by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: Which artists most inspire you?

Max: John Buscema, Neal Adams, Klimt, Martiniere, Sparth, Marko Djurdjevic and many other I can't even remember.

Sci-Fi Art Now: What is the appeal to you of science fiction as an inspiration for some of your work?

Max: Sci-Fi is the place where anything can happen, so you can draw anything.

Sci-Fi Art Now: Do you have a favourite piece of work or project you have worked on?

Max: There's a cover I made for an Italian comic book called Future War. I like the colours and the mood of the piece.

Future War by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: In your career, have you had any bizarre experiences while creating your art?

Max: Once I drew a background watching the reflection of my room on the monitor!

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About Sci-Fi Art Now

Sci-Fi Art Now is a book collecting some of the best in contemporary science fiction art by a wide range of creators. The book, edited by John Freeman, includes an introduction by the legendary Chris Foss, published in the UK by ILEX and in the US by Harper Collins.

A full list of artists featured, together with links to their web sites, appears below.

Chris Foss

Chris Foss provides the introduction for Sci-Fi Art Now, an artist who has had an immense impact on our collective vision of the future down the years, as cover artist for many SF books written by authors such as Harry Harrison, Philip K Dick, Isaac Asimov and E.E. 'Doc' Smith'; and his design work for films such as Alien and Superman.